Discovery of PCBs Keeps Ex-Naval Ship from Chinese Scrapyard

SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 5, 2004 (ENS) - On a tip from the Basel Action Network, a global toxic waste watchdog organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has moved to halt the export of a decommissioned World War II ship from Mare Island at Vallejo, California to China for scrapping.

The EPA confirmed that the vessel USS Crescent City, (aka Golden Bear, aka Artship) cannot be shipped to China because it contains significant amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act prohibits the export of materials containing more than 50 parts per million of PCBs. The EPA analyzed samples from the ship and identified PCB concentrations greater than 125,000 parts per million.

The ship was scheduled to be sent to China for recycling last month. But Monday, the EPA told the ship owners, Sanship, Inc., that they will need to properly remove and dispose of the toxic materials before the ship can be transported overseas.

"The EPA prohibits older ships from being sent overseas in situations where high levels of PCBs can end up endangering the health and safety of workers in other countries," said Enrique Manzanilla, director of the cross media division for the EPA's Pacific Southwest region. "We shouldn't transfer our hazardous materials to other countries that may not be as well equipped or trained to deal with these materials."

The agency acted after the Basel Action Network contacted legal defense organization Earthjustice of Oakland, California, who in turn notified the present owner, Emilio Sanchez of Brownsville, Texas, and the EPA of intent to take legal action to halt the export should the government fail to act.

"We are very satisfied that the Environmental Protection Agency in Region IX has acted with a sense of urgency and responsibility to uphold the law and prevent our country from passing its toxic burden to laborers and environments in other countries" said Marcello Mollo of Earthjustice. "Now we need to ensure that EPA shows similar responsibility with government owned ships."

Mollo says the action raises questions of a double standard whereby the EPA takes action against private owners but fails to halt the export of government vessels. While the former troop ship USS Crescent City is privately owned, EPA has failed to take similar action to halt exports in the matter of the disposition of the entire government owned "ghost fleet" of about 150 rusting ex-naval vessels now moored in Suisun Bay, California, Beamont, Texas and on the James River in Virginia known as the National Defense Reserve Fleet.

Last year, the EPA exercised its enforcement discretion in an attempt to help the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) export four ghost ships to the United Kingdom for scrapping despite their contamination with asbestos, PCBs, and old fuel oil. The ships are now in England, but permits to scrap them were withdrawn and they will be returned to the United States.

The Basel Action Network and Earthjustice hope that the Bush administration will locate a suitable ship scrapping yard on the West Coast to properly decontaminate and recycle the National Defense Reserve Fleet vessels moored in Suisin Bay, as well as retired West Coast oil platforms.